Itauma, who faces Filip Hrgovic (20-1, 15 KOs) on August 29, was among a group of boxers taken away to Marbella, Spain, by coach Ben Davison for some warm weather training and the kind of team bonding that is often absent in the lonely life of a fighter.

A key part of the grueling schedule was runs up the Sierra Blanca mountains, with one particular 10km (6.2 miles) route taking the team to the Pueblos Blancos of Istan. At close to 250 pounds, Itauma was one of the heaviest in the group and he did not expect to keep up with his lighter stablemates like Leigh Wood, the former world featherweight champion. Even so, he got his tactics wrong first time out and nearly paid the price.

“We did the mountain run twice,” Itauma said, during a media roundtable.

“I got a better time the second time because what happened was first time we did it, I didn't realize the first three kilometres were really, really steep.

“I blew my gas tank and then I'm looking at the rest of this 7km thinking, 'am I even going to complete this?' Little by little I started slowing down. People started running past me, and I was thinking, this is embarrassing.

“But in the end I managed to do it in 58 minutes.”

The second time around, however, he had some added motivation in the form of retired pro Campbell Hatton. The 25-year-old former junior welterweight contender has not boxed since his second successive defeat to Jimmy Joe Flint in October 2024, after which he decided to call time on his career.

But after signing a deal with Misfits Boxing in June, the son of the late, great Ricky Hatton, decided to head out to Spain with his former trainer Davison and the team.

“So when we did the mountain the second time, we had Campbell with us,” Itauma said. “Obviously he hasn't trained for a long time. He's big now. He's not 10 stone anyway.

“So we've all started off, everybody's gone, and now at the back two people are me and Campbell Hatton. But there's a big gap between me and Campbell. "Then what happened was as I'm running, I'm running, I'm running but I can see a figure getting closer to me, and I'm thinking ‘this guy hasn’t trained in over a year.' I said to myself ‘I can't let it happen, I can't let it happen.' And he's getting even closer and I'm like digging deep to not let this person overtake me.

“Anyways, I get to the finish line, and I found out it wasn't even Campbell Hatton. It was Tobias [Taylor], who's a very good amateur, a middleweight, so obviously he's going to be a better runner than I am. “I remember standing there 10 minutes later and Campbell Hatton still isn’t turning up. I said to Tobias that I thought he was Campbell and had I known it was him, I would have let him just run past me.

“It was hard but It was a good run. I did it quicker the second time and got a PB.”

Itauma (14-0, 12 KOs) is still just 21 but has already spoken of falling out of love for the sport before he linked up with Davison in 2024. He has since rediscovered his passion for boxing and says trips like this raise standards across the board. However, there were a few members of the traveling party who could not quite stay the course.

He said:  “Do you know what it is with training camps abroad? It's like everything picks up, and everything gets multiplied. So it's like, if you're training, you're training. Once you finish training, you've got training again.

“Training, training, more training. That's the only thing that we did. So you train twice a day, and then you're in Marbella, and you're not just going to go to sleep. So it's the late nights and early mornings that test everyone.

“There was only a few of us that actually finished the training camp. A good 60 percent of the group had to return home on the Tuesday.”

With what he describes as the toughest test of his career to date on the horizon, there was no chance Itauma would head home early. Now, with pre-season officially over, the remainder of his preparation will take place at Davison’s gym in Harlow, Essex.

“I’m back now and I’ll be finishing my camp here,” he said. “That was Marbella and we're leaving Marbella in Marbella.”